


What

by bottleofcasgrace



Category: Star Trek
Genre: if you don't like it it's not for you, therefore there will be limited tagging so that I don't annoy people actually looking for things, this is a self-insert/oc fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-10 01:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottleofcasgrace/pseuds/bottleofcasgrace
Summary: Happy 5 year Friendaversary Molly - This seems like a significantly better place to put things than continuing to post this 30+ page fic on tumblr.Tobie and Bethany are thrown back in time where they keep running into different ships and different people. Will they ever get home to the USS Tesla?





	1. Enterprise NX-01

The bridge of the NX-01 was calm and quiet. They had just finished several diplomatic meetings, and were heading to explore a nearby system. Captain Archer sat in his chair in the middle of the bridge looking thoughtful as an alarm broke through the silence.

“Sir, intruder alert on C deck, between the fabrication shop and the computer library,” Lieutenant Malcolm Reed reported, pressing several buttons on his panel.

“Malcolm, aren’t our shields up?” the captain asked.

“Our shields are at maximum sir.”

“Then how did they get in?!”

“I don’t know sir.”

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Bethany Corwin of the USS Tesla came to on a small bed, underneath another bed, behind glass doors. It was a small area, and nowhere to hide. Immediately, she checked herself over - her uniform was on, but both her phaser and her tricorder were gone from her hip. The last time she could remember, she had been in engineering, purging several of the plasma injectors, while Tobie bugged her about doing a new holo-program they’d found. Something must had gone wrong, but this didn’t look like the medical bay on the Tesla, which meant that something must have gone really, really wrong.

The doors she could see through the glass opened suddenly, and in strode a man. He was wearing a blue suit, with… zippers? At least, that’s what Bethany thought they were called. They had been obsolete for hundreds of years, plus they were generally made out of non-renewable materials, which made them difficult to procure, and basically useless. He had four blocks on the one side of his chest. Maybe this was the program that Tobie had wanted to show her?

“What are you doing aboard my ship?” the man asked, and Bethany looked at him. It was strange, he seemed to be pushing a button in order to talk to her, and they weren’t using forcefields.

“I’m sorry?” she said, looking for more information, trying for more time. Her English was rough at best, Federation Standard was much more common, and while it had loan words, it certainly wasn’t English. Besides, everyone used their universal translators nowadays, so her second language learning hadn’t even been that important.

“How did you get in here? We had the sheel soup” That didn’t make sense.

“Sorry?” she tried again, as the man looked more frustrated. “I… don’t understand?”

He walked back to the door, and she couldn’t hear him anymore, but as the doors opened he spoke to one of the men standing outside, who was dressed like him, but with less silver blocks. As he turned, Bethany caught sight of the patch on one side of his uniform. It said “NX-01 Enterprise”. But that couldn’t be true? The NX-01 had been decommissioned for centuries…

But it _would_ explain the uniforms.

* * *

Lt Commander Tobie Celes had come to next to Commander Corwin, earlier than the human had. They weren’t entirely certain where they were, just that they were still on a ship, and it had many many humans aboard. Also, possibly a part Vulcan, based on the way that the emotions were suppressed slightly. Trying to take stock of where they and their friend had ended up, Tobie stood up. They were in a hallway, very exposed, and it sounded like there were several people who were headed that way. Quickly glancing around for someplace to hide the unconscious human and themselves, they walked slightly down the hall.

“Here!” someone shouted behind them, and they quickly ducked into what appeared to be an engineering hatch. It was obvious that they were no longer on the Tesla.

“Let’s take her to the brig,” another voice came from where their friend had been, and Tobie began to move further into the tunnel. They paused to listen for footsteps, but they all seemed to be heading away from them.

This would require some planning.

* * *

Bethany’s talk with the captain had gone smoother once the translator - Ensign Sato - had arrived. She had used a primitive version of the universal translator, but Bethany had been hesitant to give too much information away. It was obvious that there had been some time travel and the less she had to talk to Temporal Investigations about the better.

Although she was in total awe of Archer - he would _found_ the Federation - she was unimpressed by his intimidation practices. He had even accused her of being a Temporal Agent! Temporal Investigations hadn’t been founded at this point - not even Starfleet existed in the way it did in her time. He’d threatened to throw her out of an airlock, which she’d folded her arms at and then refused to speak anymore, obviously annoying the captain, and his translator. He had left then, while Sato had given her an apologetic look before following her captain.

The door swung open, and Bethany continued to watch her legs swing over the edge of her bed, not interested in speaking to Archer just yet. A quiet hiss sounded as the glass door opened, and Bethany looked up quickly to see Tobie standing there!

“What are you doing here?” she asked astounded, and grateful. Her friend was here and now they could finally figure out what was going on! “This isn’t the holoprogram you wanted to show me, is it?”

Tobie’s mouth twitched into a slight smile. “No, it’s not. We’ve got to move though, I only stunned the guards outside, but I kept it quite low in case they didn’t have a high tolerance.” Fair enough, Bethany thought, taking her phase pistol and tricorder that her friend handed her.

“We’re on the Enterprise - the first one. Archer has been interrogating me trying to figure out who I am. He keeps asking if I’m a temporal agent. What are we going to do?” Tobie actually grinned this time.

“We’re going to fly out of here.”

* * *

Getting to the launch bay hadn’t been that difficult. It just involved going up one deck, so they’d avoided the turbolifts. They hadn’t even run into anyone on their way there, which Bethany counted as extremely lucky.

“Can you lock off the launch bay?” Tobie asked, Bethany nodded slowly as an alarm suddenly flashed.

“Intruder alert, intruder alert.”

“I guess they figured out we’re not in the brig anymore,” Bethany said, moving to the panel on the floor, looking for the interface she was used to. “This is ancient. They actually have buttons.”

Tobie pulled their phase pistol out of its holster, steadying themselves behind one of the two runabouts. “Quickly as you can,” they said snarkily, as a locking sound on the main doors echoed in the room.

“I’m trying. Do you know how to fly those things?”

“It can’t be that hard can it? It’s all ancient tech, it’s sure to be easier than our runabouts,” Tobie yelled over the alarm as one of the upper doors to the slid open. “I thought you’d locked those!”

“Me too!” Bethany replied, frantically pulling the casing off as Tobie began exchanging fire with the security squad that had filtered through the door.

* * *

“Trip, status report!” Archer barked into the comm on his chair, the alarm blaring in the background.

“Someone’s trying to lock us out of the launch bay, they’ve locked the main doors.”

“Don’t let them!”

“Aye, sir!”

“Reed to Archer.”

“Archer here, tell me what’s happening Lieutenant.”

“It appears that there’s two of them, Captain. The other one has a weapon, but it’s only stunned people so far, sir.”

“Get more of your men down there, now!”

* * *

“Bethany, tell me you can lock the doors now!” Tobie ducked behind the shuttlepod again.

“Someone’s trying to lock me out. It’s gonna take a couple minutes. If we were on the Tesla it wouldn’t be this difficult, but I’ve got limited options.”

“We don’t have a couple minutes! I’m losing ground here. Retreat to one of the runabouts!”

“Lay down some cover!” Bethany said, ducking low to avoid being seen. This was one advantage to their dark uniforms, she thought, running to Tobie’s side. Taking out their phase pistol, she started laying some cover fire for Tobie to open the door of the shuttlepod. Tobie sprinted, climbing in, before Bethany dove in behind them, shutting the door and locking it.

“How long can we last in here?” Tobie asked.

“I can probably keep them out for a little longer, and the shuttle should be impervious to their fire, especially if we get the shields up and running,” Bethany responded pulling of the sides, as Tobie went to the controls. “If they get a plasma torch, we’re out of options though.”

Tobie let out a little chuckle. “What’s the likelihood we’ve changed history?”

* * *

The temporal agents had been holed up in Shuttlepod Two for three hours by the time Archer ordered the senior staff to meet in the back of the bridge.

“Trip, report.”

Commander Tucker stood up from where he was leaning against the wall, pulling up a schematic of the shuttlepod.

“Everytime I do something, they seem to be two steps ahead, like they’ve already thought of it. I’ve half a mind to start taking apart everything and see where we stand.”

“So they obviously know our technology pretty well, then?”

“That’s just the thing, Captain, they’re reconfiguring things in ways I’ve never seen before. When I tried to go in through the port side to change the locking guide, they’ve already rerouted it somehow, except the only things that are online for them are life support and shields. They haven’t powered up weapons but I’m not even sure I could find those even if they did.”

“It would be logical to conclude then that they are waiting for us to leave them alone,” T’Pol stated, staring at the schematics that Tucker had put up on the screen. “If they activated the weapons, it would be easy for them to break out, so then we must assume that they are not interested in hurting us.”

“We can’t even get in, now that they’ve got the shields up.”

“What about a stun grenade, Malcolm?” the captain asked.

“Already tried, sir,” the tactical officer said with a sigh. “It had no effect between the shielding and the glass."

"Captain, one of them isn't human. We have no idea how they might react to our weapon fire,” T’Pol said, startling Archer.

“Why didn't you tell me this before?”

“I was running it through the Vulcan Database. The one who broke the other out- the one you didn't interrogate - is a Betazoid, a humanoid species from Betazed.”

“I've never heard of them,” Trip said. “Betazed is the opposite direction from the Briar Patch, close to several Andorian colonies, but they do have a special ability. Betazoids are telepaths, they can sense and read minds,” T’Pol said, speaking to the captain.

“So how do we talk to them?"

“They appear to be eating some of our emergency rations now, sir,” Malcolm reported.

“I want them out.”

* * *

“It said cheese on it, so I assumed it had to be good!” Tobie said, waving the emergency rations packet around angrily as Bethany looked on in amusement from underneath the dashboard.

“These are ration packs. From 2150 or something. There’s barely any guarantee that they’re edible. At least, that’s what they say. No replicators.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be a history expert?” Tobie asked, “Don’t you have a degree in it or something?”

“You know I don’t! Besides, you’re equally as interested in history, why didn’t you know that?” Bethany responded, putting another two cables in a different place, that then caused some sparks to fly. She pulled them out quickly, frowning.

“Only Betazoid history, you’re the human,” Tobie said, flopping against a wall.

“Well, my interest was never pre-federation. Wanna help me out here? I need you to remove this, which I think is the engine manifold and put it into here.”

“You think? Is there any guarantee this will fly after you’re done?”

“It’s an ancient ship! It’s even older than the old ones we trained on at the academy. It’s configured in a weird way.”

The lights flickered and then came back on as Tobie pulled the indicated cable out.

“That shouldn’t have done that,” Bethany said, concerned. “Check our shields?”

“They’re offline,” Tobie said flatly.

“Well, shit.”

* * *

“Commander Tucker, the shields appear to be offline.”

“What did you do Malcolm?” Trip asked annoyed.

“Nothing sir, they appear to have done it on their own.”

“I’m on my way. Kelby, Rivers, Walsh, you’re with me!” he said, rushing out of Engineering.

* * *

“I don’t understand why that would have overloaded the system,” Bethany said, pulling off another panel to get to the mechanism underneath, as Tobie watched the door, hand tight on their phase pistol.

“Uh huh.”

“Well, it shouldn’t have. That should have added additional power to the locking mechanism, but it was being filtered through the -” Bethany stopped and then whirled around to pull off a different plating.

“What did you mess up?” Tobie asked, feeling the guilt their friend was becoming overwhelmed by.

“This runabout wouldn’t have a warp reactor because it doesn’t go above impulse because runabouts weren’t fitted with warp speed until the early part of the 24rd century. And it’s the 22nd century,” Bethany said quietly.

“Uh huh. Okay, well, then, let’s just get ready for the Not-Starfleet people to attempt to get in,” Tobie said, checking through the front window to see where the security people had been. “Also, did you see that the security people are have red on their uniforms, under their shoulders?”

“No,” Bethany said, replacing a couple of the panels, before pulling another off. “I hadn’t paid that much attention, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I remember learning that early Starfleet had command and engineering/security colours mixed up, but i didn’t know it came back this early.”

“Me neither. Archer’s still an asshole though.”

Tobie hummed noncommittally.

* * *

Hoshi’s translator proved to be incredibly useful, now that they’d been able to get into the shuttlepod’s system and rig it up so that they could hear what the people in the shuttlepod were talking about.

“Look, Vyc’s gonna give us the whole ‘you did the best you could do’ but you know they’re going to be totally disappointed if we don’t at least try to get an autograph of-” the one cut themself off. “Tobie, I hear something.”

“Yeah, they’re about to use plasma torches on the outer hull.”

“Seriously? They couldn’t just leave me to try and put everything into some sort of working order while I fix the shields?” The first prisoner, Bethany, said.

“Nope,” the other one - Tobie’s voice came through and echoed through the launch bay as Rivers started to take some of the plating off of the starboard hull.

“Well, I can’t activate the shields while someone is inside them, so given that they don’t seem likely to leave us alone…”

Trip started reaching in, pulling out some wires and detaching a control panel, removing it and placing it carefully on the ground beside him, then turning back to the shuttle pod he saw a pair of blue eyes and then -

“AHHHHH”

A high pitched scream and then a slam echoed between the real panel that had just been slammed back into place and the scream and the slam that came out of the translator.

“What in the hell are you doing?” he wondered out loud as the voices coming from Hoshi’s translator grew louder.

“They are right outside, they’re literally pulling apart their own ship to get to us.”

“Okay, then we’ll just stun them through there.”

“You can’t _do_ that! It’s right by the plasma manifold, if you miss, we could blow up the whole runabout - the whole ship for that matter!”

“Then I won’t miss.”

“Uh uh, nope, I won’t allow it. I’m the engineer here, it’s not happening.”

“Bethany!” “Lieutenant Commander Celes!”

“Lieutenant Commander Corwin.”

There was silence for a minute, two minutes, and then the panel was slowly taken away with just a quarter inch of space. Malcolm moved forward with his phase pistol ready, but Trip held out a hand.

“She’s right,” he said, “If you aim through there you’re going to blow this whole thing up.”

“Okay,” came from the hole and the translator. “First off, I told you they were listening to us. Secondly, I’m glad to see that you also know your stuff. You mind turning it off? The echo is annoying.” Trip frowned.

“I dunno. Depends on what you’re planning to do with the shuttlepod.”

The other voice came from the hole, and the plating on the inside moved over just slightly so that he could see a pair of black eyes. “Well, considering you’ve got us trapped in here, mostly just eat your disgusting ration packs.” The blue eyes rolled up and Malcolm came up next to him.

“You’re trespassing on an exploration vessel from the planet Earth. State your intentions.” Trip looked at Malcolm, slightly shaking his head.

“Well, I’m from Earth too, so… calm down?” The engineer said, making Malcolm scoff, and the black eyes squint.

“We’re just trying to get back to our ship,” they said.

“How did you get on board?” Malcolm asked, bringing his phase pistol up again, which Trip grabbed out of his hands.

“Are you insane? I _told_ you that you can’t shoot inta there!” he said angrily.

“Seriously, the echo is driving me insane, can you turn that thing off?” the black eyed one said.

“You tell me your names and I’ll do that,” Trip said, “But then we’re getting the captain too.”

The eyes turned towards each other, so Trip couldn’t see them, before turning back.

“Yes, alright,” said the black eyed one. “I’m Tobie.”

“I’m still Bethany,” said the blue eyed one. “You’re the chief of engineering?”

Trip nodded, and then turned to Malcolm, who went over and turned off the translator from echoing into the room, before sending one of his team to get the captain.

“You’re pretty good,” Bethany said, while this time the black eyes rolled up.

“We need to discuss what will happen if we leave the… shuttlepod,” Tobie said, the word sounding unfamiliar on their tongue.

“Captain Archer will be here momentarily, and he’ll be able to discuss with you anything you might need.”

“Do you have any maple syrup?”

“Tobie, maple syrup will not help the ration packs taste better.”

“It’s worth a shot?” These two were clearly completely at ease with their current situation, which had to mean they were crazy, Trip thought, looking at Malcolm who also looked uneasy.

“How did you get on the ship?” Malcolm tried again.

“Dunno, kinda just happened. Then I woke up in your brig, which isn’t the nicest place to welcome visitors, to be honest,” Bethany said, sounding annoyed. “I was cleaning plasma conduits on our ship and then boom, here we are.”

“Where’s your ship? I don’t recognize your uniforms?” Malcolm asked.

“That is sensitive information that we can’t share with you at this time,” Tobie responded, fixing Malcolm with a stare.

“You mentioned Betazoid, that’s your planet, isn’t it?” Trip asked, seeing the main doors slide open from the corner of his eye. There was a slight scuffle that could be heard before Tobie responded.

“That is sensitive information we can’t share with you at this time.”

A few more seconds of silence, and then Trip stood up, and walked over to speak with Captain Archer.

“They’re behind one of the plasma manifolds. The risk of hitting it is too high, I can’t recommend using any weapons close to it, otherwise you won’t have a ship, let alone a shuttlepod.”

“Have they said anything?” “We’ve got their names, sir, that’s about all. They say it’s sensitive information whenever we ask. Said they got here because plasma injectors blew up or something.”

Archer crossed his arms, thinking.

“Sir?”

Archer turned back to him. “They really know what they’re doing, sir. All power in the ship was converted into the shields, the locking system, and life support. They disconnected the weapons almost immediately,” Trip said quickly. “I don’t know who they are, but they’ve got pretty substantial engineering knowledge. They just seem to be having trouble with the specifics of the shuttlepod.”

Archer nodded thoughtfully. “Have they mentioned anything about time travel yet?”

“No sir.” Trip shook his head.

Archer strode over to the shuttlepod, crouching down to see through the mass of wire as Malcolm moved back slightly to let the captain through.

* * *

“What are you doing aboard my ship?” Jonathan Archer asked, his eyes framed by the wires of the runabout they'd commandeered. Bethany looked at Tobie, while the Betazoid clenched their jaw slightly.

“As my friend told your officers, we’re here by accident. Something happened that made us end up here,” Tobie said, fixing Archer with a stare.

“Did Daniels send you here?”

“Who’s Daniels?” Bethany asked, looking confusedly at the captain. “Wait, Tobie, isn’t one of your guys a Daniels?”

“I’m assuming it can’t be the same one,” Tobie said, looking at Bethany with an uncomprehending look. “Since we’re in the the 22nd century and all.”

“Oh, right,” Bethany said, looking down at the ground as her cheeks flushed slightly. “Okay, so, no.”

“He’s a temporal agent, like you are, although your uniforms look quite different from his,” Archer said, through the hole.

“We’re not temporal agents.”

“What century are you from, the 29th? The 30th?” Archer tried again.

“What the heck? No, no, that’s way too far,” Bethany said before Tobie elbowed her again.

“That hurts! You’re bony!” _T_

_hen stop giving him all the information?_ Tobie said to Bethany who frowned.

_We’re kind of trapped in here until someone can find us or we can convince the Enterprise to help us, and that seems like the most likely option here,_ Bethany thought at Tobie, who frowned back at her.

_We shouldn’t be giving out information,_ Tobie replied. _It’ll damage the timeline._

_But we need them to trust us. Besides, our century and that we work on a ship shouldn’t hurt,_ Bethany thought.

_Fine, if you can get them to help you great, otherwise, I’m pulling us back into the next… shuttlepod, and we’re getting out of here until Captain Sito gets us back,_ Tobie said.

“Excellent, okay,” Bethany said out loud, ignoring her friend’s sigh. “So, we need help getting back to our own century, and since you know a guy, do you think you could help us out?” Archer blinked three times slowly before he answered.

“You want our help to get you back when all you’ve done is break out of the brig and try to escape.”

Bethany looked at him. “Timelines are really easy to mess up, and I’d rather not not be born if you know what I mean?”

“We’ll help on one condition,” Archer said, “You disarm, and then we can talk about things.”

“No way,” Tobie said, “Being here is bad enough, I’m not risking leaving behind future technology.”

“You’re on my ship.”

“By the plasma manifold. I can blow this ship up, and most of your senior officers too. And I think you care a lot more about the entire crew and the ship here than I do,” Tobie said, bluffing. Bethany hoped.

“What if we both disarm our weapons and leave them in a secured spot in the room?” Bethany suggested. “We’ll tell you the whole story of how we got here, and then you can decide if you want to help us. If you do, that’s great. If not, we’ll… get off at your next stop?”

“Or we’ll throw you in the brig,” Archer said.

“Okay, or that,” Bethany said nodding. Tobie looked at her in disbelief.

_They’re definitely going to help!_ Bethany defended herself, _It’s the Enterprise crew! They always help people!_

* * *

“So you’re saying you have no idea how you got here,” Archer asked again to the two sitting at the Captain’s table.

“Nope,” the blonde one, Bethany, said cheerily and her companion looked at her with a slight eye roll, from the excitement, Archer assumed. “But I’ll be looking at all the stats I can find when we get back to our ship.”

“Captain, might I remind you that the Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible,” T’Pol spoke up from her spot in the corner, while Trip put his head in his hands.

“No, they haven’t,” Bethany said, looking at her. The Betazoid joined Trip with their head in their hands.

“I understand this is an unorthodox request, but I wouldn’t make it if I didn’t think that you could help us,” Bethany said, just as the ship rocked to one side.

“Report!” Archer said, staggering to a communications box on the wall.

“It’s the Klingons, sir,” Travis’ voice came through, “They’re firing.”

“Go to tactical alert!” Archer said, rushing out of the room onto to the Bridge, while his officers followed. Bethany turned to Tobie, and then shrugged, before following the humans out.

“Why are the Klingons attacking?” Bethany asked the room as they saw the Klingon bird of prey on screen.

“Because it’s pre-federation, they’re still on the verge of war!” Tobie replied, looking at the weapons station.

“Right… I’m gonna go down to engineering and see if I can help,” Bethany said, sprinting over to the turbolift, leaving Tobie to grab onto a railing as the ship swerved and sparks exploded overhead. By the time Tobie could think of a response to their friend, she’d already disappeared. Tobie didn’t have much hope that she’d have listened even if they’d thought of something quicker.

“Fire torpedos,” Archer said, barking the words from his seat where he held on. “Travis, evasive maneuvers. Hoshi, try and hail them.”

Another shower of sparks came down, this time around the Weapons station, as Malcolm pressed several buttons. “Shields down to 23%,” he said, waving a few sparks from his panel.

“Keep them up!” Archer replied, as the ship shook once again, and more sparks flew from the ceiling. With a loud crash, a pipe burst out of the wall beside Tobie, making them jump away.

“Shields are dow-” Lieutenant Reed was interrupted by a large bang that came from the wall behind him. Another bang, and Lieutenant Reed was on the ground. Without even thinking, Tobie jumped over the weapons console, and checked his pulse - He was breathing, and appeared to be unconscious. Looking at the weapons sensor, they aimed at where the Klingon Bird of Prey’s weapons usually were, and sent off a volley, before remembering where they used to be and aiming there.

“Sir, shields are back online!” Hoshi yelled over another rattle, as the Bird of Prey turned and started moving away from them.

“Trip, I don’t know what you did, but it worked,” Archer said into his console, before turning to Tobie. “Nice aim.”

“Sir,” they said, nodding. “Lieutenant Reed needs medical attention.” Two crewmen - medics - came through the turbolift, going straight to the unconscious Security officer.

“Travis, get us out of here,” Archer said, turning to the screen. “Maximum warp.”

* * *

Two hours later, Bethany and Tobie were sitting in the galley drinking some tea as they watched space go by.

“I honestly can’t believe that they’ve actually managed to get up to warp five with the purity of dilithium crystals they have - They’re barely even dilithium, so it’s no wonder they can’t compress the - ” Bethany stopped her rant by turning to her friend. “How was it?”

“Could’ve been worse,” Tobie replied, shrugging again. “We’ve definitely altered the time line.” Bethany frowned.

“How’s Lieutenant Reed?” she asked.

“Conscious, from what I know,” Tobie looked out the galley window again, “It just seems so stupid, that I … did that.” “

It’s what your training told you to,” Bethany said, taking another sip of her oversweet tea.

“But we’re not supposed to interfere,” Tobie said frowning. “I mean, I interfered just as much as you did,” Bethany replied, trying to make them feel better. “I got the shields back up and running.” “

The Captain is going to kill us when she realizes the mess we’ve made,” Tobie said, smiling.

“You get to make the report!” Bethany said jokingly, “We’ll just leave out all the bad stuff.”

Tobie took a sip of their tea, then looked at Bethany. “So, how do you think we got here?”

Bethany frowned, staring into her cup. “Honestly? We should be lying in sick bay right now, I can’t think of anything that might have thrown us back in time. But time travel’s not well researched yet, and it’s definitely not my area of expertise.”

“Huh,” Tobie said, draining their mug. “

Can you get us back?”

“There’s something Professor O’Brien told me he did once that might work,” Bethany replied, “But I’m not sure.”

“Worth a shot?” The door of the galley quietly hissed open, and both Tobie and Bethany turned to look. Hoshi Sato stood in the doorway.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” she said nervously, while Bethany waved that away.

“Hey, can I ask you for something weird?” Bethany said, suddenly sitting up.

“Yeah, sure,” the communications officer replied.

“It’s just… Our friend is a … really big fan,” Bethany started awkwardly.

“In the future?” Hoshi said uncertainly.

“Yeah, well, you -” Bethany turned uncertainly to Tobie who shook their head. “Let’s just leave it at a big fan.”

“Okay,” Hoshi said curiously.

“Would you sign my padd?”

“Would I - what?”

“Would you sign my padd so that I can send it to my friend?” Bethany asked again, cringing slightly.

“Uhm, sure,” Hoshi said, taking the proffered padd and awkwardly signing it.

“Thanks,” Bethany said, turning back to Tobie. “They owe me big now.”

Tobie nodded, laughing slightly.

“Anyway,” Hoshi said, shaking her head slightly as if to get rid of the memory of the last awkward minute. “The captain wants to see you.” Tobie stood up quietly, while Bethany stuck her signed padd into a loop on her belt.

* * *

“We’re happy to help in anyway we can,” Archer said, looking at them from across his quarters. “I don’t know how much we can do, but we’ll do what we can.”

Tobie and Bethany nodded, gratefully.

“I also wanted to thank you for your help, on the bridge, …”

“Commander Celes, thank you sir,” Tobie said, smiling.

“And Trip tells me you were very good in engineering, and you’re the reason our shields went back up,” Archer said, turning to Bethany.

“‘S my job sir,” Bethany replied.

“Now, have you thought about how you could get home?” Archer asked, leaning forward.

“I think I may be able to modify your transporter to move us through time - I know that it’s been done before, and I looked at the specs of your transporter and I think it should work,” Bethany said frowning.

“I’ll have Trip get a team to help you right away,” Archer said.

* * *

Tobie approached Bethany, who appeared to be tinkering at one last part of the transporter panel.

“Will it work?” they asked, watching their friend, waiting for the rest of the Enterprise team to show up.

“Theoretically - yes,” Bethany replied, putting a spanner in the pocket of the belt by her feet. Tobie looked at her and she nodded.

“It’ll be fine. I promise.”

“Okay, if you’re sure,” Tobie said, then turned to where the Captain and his first officer were coming down the hall. “Thank you for your hospitality, Captain. Best of luck to your endeavour.”

Nodding their head slightly to the Captain, Tobie made their way to the transporter as Bethany imputed the coordinates. Hoshi, Trip, and Malcolm came down the hall from the other side.

“You wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye?” Hoshi said smiling, making Bethany and Tobie smile in response. With one hand on her padd, Bethany nodded.

“Thank you, again.”

Trip stepped up to the transporter console. “Ready?"

Bethany and Tobie nodded.

“Energize.”

The familiar shimmer of transporting flew in front of their eyes as the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise disappeared. In its place, a familiar Galaxy transporter room solidified, except… The carpet was wrong.

And the walls were a funny colour.

The two officers operating the transporter were wearing the wrong uniform.

“What the fuck?!”


	2. Enterprise NCC 1701-D

** Last time **

A familiar Galaxy transporter room solidified through the shimmer of transportation, except - The carpet was wrong.

And the walls were a funny colour.

The two officers operating the transporter were wearing the wrong uniform.

“What the fuck?!”

* * *

 

“Ow…” Tobie breathed out, and Bethany looked down at them.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit,” she said under her breath like a mantra. They had appeared on the transporter pad. The same pad where a selection of supplied had just been beamed aboard, and one of the containers - cylindrical, and long, and Bethany had no idea what it was for - was going straight through Tobie’s abdomen.

“Move!” Bethany shouted, jumping over the boxes and going for the console. Terrified, the transporter operator took a couple steps back, which bethany took advantage of to phase out the supplies. Tobie fell to the ground, and Bethany yelled at the two yellow-clad officers.

“Medical emergency!”

One ran towards Tobie and the other pressed his combadge (which Bethany noted was also outdated. By at least two styles…)  
As soon as Tobie and the one who had ran to help them were off the transporter pad, Bethany rematerialized the supplies, and then ran towards her friend. Tobie looked pale, but there was no longer a hole through them. Tobie coughed and a bunch of blood came out of their mouth.

“Thought you were the best engineer,” they said, with more of a grimace than a smile. Their teeth were red from the blood, and Bethany tried not to look scared, crouching beside her friend, and leaning against the wall where Tobie was propped up.

“You’ll be fine. We’re not far away from our own time, so I’m sure whoever is the CMO will get you fixed up in no time,” Bethany said as Tobie’s head drooped to one side.

People in blue uniforms burst into the room, a stretcher following them. Bethany tried to help them lift Tobie but they did it quickly and with ease, asking questions all the while.

“Transporter accident,” Bethany offered quickly, following them through the hallways in a familiar pattern.

“I’m reading increased tachyon and chroniton particles,” said the darker haired of the two medical officers, waving a medical tricorder over Tobie’s body.

The red haired one looked back at Bethany. “What race?”

“Full Betazoid,” Bethany answered, looking back down at their friend as they raced into med bay.

The older, red haired one immediately went and began putting on what looked like surgery scrubs as Bethany looked on helplessly. The med bay doors opened again, and a blonde haired human walked into the room.

“Our captain would like to speak with you,” she said. Her posture was stiff, and she had a phaser on her hip. Bethany assumed she was the ship’s security officer.

_Not again…_

* * *

This captain’s ready room was similar but entirely different to her own. They both had aquariums, but otherwise the decor was completely different. Captain Sito’s room had candles on one side, a space for her to mediate, and there was a small, but growing, accumulation of trinkets from various missions - a rock here, a small gift there. This captain’s ready room was devoid of candles, which Bethany felt made it look stark, and routine, the opposite of Captain Sito’s homey feel. The room had a desk, and a small side table with a chair. On the desk sat a small replica model of an ancient city. This captain, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise D and E looked up, folding his hands in his lap as he watched her sit down across the desk.

Well, then based on the uniforms, the security officer who might or might not be Tasha Yar, Android-Amour, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard, meant that they were about thirty years away from their own time. Better than two hundred but still not good.

“Hello,” Bethany said, smiling tightly at the man sat opposite her while internally wishing that Tobie was the one doing this.

“Can I ask you what you’re doing on my ship?” the captain asked, looking at her intensely.

“Temporal shenanigans?” Bethany offered, making the security guard still in the corner snicker. After the last time, she had no interest in antagonizing the captain or lying. While the Temporal Prime Directive said that she should minimize her contact with people of this century, Bethany wanted to tell them whatever got her help the fastest and with as minimal timeline damage as possible.

“I see,” Captain Picard said, leaning back and folding his arms. “What can you tell me?”

“Just that I need access to a transporter for a temporal transport,” Bethany said, hoping that would be all she needed to say.

The captain quirked his eyebrow at her, and leaned forward. “That’s not quite enough information for me to help you.”

Bethany frowned. Maybe she had been a little optimistic. “I’m from the future. My friend and I are officers aboard a Federation starship called the USS Tesla, which is also Galaxy class ship modeled after this one.”

She had avoiding naming their captain, who had been aboard this Enterprise at some point during her early years, so Bethany counted that as a win. _Tobie, you would know what to say here,_ Bethany thought, hoping her friend was getting the proper treatment.

“I see,” Captain Picard said, making Bethany frown again.

“What year is this?” Bethany asked.

“2364,” Picard answered, making Bethany’s eyes widen.

“This is your first year in command of this ship!” she said. “I knew the uniforms looked outdated but…”

_I’m four years old right now. Tobie is two. Captain Sito hasn’t even started at the Academy. Commander Leihan is currently aboard the Vulcan ship T’Pau, unless it’s already been decommissioned._

“I assume your uniform is what we can look forward to wearing in thirty years?” the captain said, looking her up and down.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, pausing before continuing. “Please, I only need to access your transporter to bring us back to our own time. I would only need one of your engineers for a day at most, once Tobie is in good condition.”

“Ah, yes, your friend…”

“We weren’t supposed to be in this time, I had the coordinates all mapped out to go back to our time, our ship, I-”

“You’ve already been in the wrong time before now?” Captain Picard interrupted her, standing up abruptly and moving towards the window.

Bethany hesitated, and then nodded. “Yes, I don’t understand what caused my calculations to be off. Our transporter room one is never used, so I assumed that it would be safe to transport there, but…”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Yar,” Picard said, nodding at the security officer, who gave him a warning look and then exited.

“The rest of the crew may not know this,” Picard said, walking back to his desk to face her. “But Starfleet does have some regulations regarding assistance to temporal travellers.”

“You’ll have to report this to temporal investigations,” Bethany replied. “But so will we.”

“We are currently in an area of space that we cannot communicate with Starfleet Headquarters. There is ionic radiation that is affecting our communications. We should be out of the area in five days time, if we cannot get you back in that time,” Picard paused. “Then we’ll return to Federation space.”

Bethany nodded. “Thank you. Really, all I’d need is access to one of your transporters, and possibly an engineer. I can do the rest.”

Picard nodded. “You should go check on your friend. Dr Crusher does excellent work, but I’m sure they would be pleased to see a familiar face. My chief engineer is currently on duty, but has a number of things to attend to before I can send him to help you.”

_Bullshit,_ Bethany thought. If this was her ship, Captain Sito would call her to brief her first, before she sent her to do anything. That’s probably what Picard is going to do too.

“Of course,” she said, instead of what she was thinking.

“I’ll have Tasha walk you down to med bay,” he said, as she stood up and offered her hand.

“I know the way, sir, but thank you,” she said, trying to be firm. He shook her hand - with a firm grasp. This was still a captain (for now) and she was still a Lieutenant Commander.

“I insist,” he said, walking her to the door. “Pleasure to meet you - ?”

“Lieutenant Commander Corwin, sir,” she replied, opting not to lie.

* * *

“I’m glad you’re still alive, so that I can actually kill you,” Tobie said weakly at Bethany when she entered the medical bay. They were still pale, and their dark eyes stood out more against the pallor of their skin. Bethany walked quickly over to their bedside, frowning.

“Have they got you all fixed up?” she asked, looking quickly at the various medical aparati surrounding her friend. It wasn’t like she could understand most of it, but some things, like the heart rate monitor, were easy to read.

“I’ve patched up several of their internal organs, and the skin was returned, so there will only be minimal internal scarring. The blood loss will take a little bit longer to recover from, so I’d like to keep them overnight, but there shouldn’t be any lasting consequences from this,” the red haired doctor - Dr Crusher? - said, walking out of her office area, and walking towards them. Tobie looked at her unblinking. Bethany stared at her friend, then the doctor. Tobie wasn’t normally starstruck - or this quiet?

“Thanks,” Bethany said, filling the awkward silence.

“You’re lucky you managed to dematerialize those supplies so quickly. If the supply container had stayed in, it would have been much more difficult,” the doctor told her. “My patient tells me that you’re travelling from the future.”

Bethany turned to look at the Betazoid in confusion. Tobie had been so against telling anyone _anything_ on the NX-01, why were they being so straightforward?

“Yes,” Bethany said cautiously, as Tobie continued to stare at the doctor silently, mouth slightly agape.

“I have to go run some samples through a science lab on deck 28, but if you need anything Nurse Ogawa can help you,” she said, referring to the dark haired medical officer who had also helped move Tobie to medical bay.

“Thanks,” Bethany said, looking back at Tobie. Tasha had made a similar excuse. She was right, they were all going to a briefing but were supposed to make it look like they weren’t.

As Dr Crusher left the lab, Bethany poked Tobie in the ribs, making the other suck in a gasp.

“Sorry,” Bethany said, not very sorry at all. “Will you stop making doe eyes at the doctor and listen to me?”

Tobie turned to look at Bethany, before blinking.

“What?”

Bethany rolled her eyes.

“You’re absolutely besotted with her and it’s only been thirty minutes,” she said, pushing Tobie’s legs to sit on the side of the bed.

“I am the injured person here!” Tobie exclaimed indignantly. Bethany winced, all teasing aside.

“I’m really sorry about that,” she said, looking down in her lap. “I must have miscalculated something to get us still stuck in time.”

“We are?” Tobie asked. “I did kind of expect to see Commander Leihan, but we look like we’re on a Galaxy class ship?”

Tobie sat up slightly, looking around. Bethany put a gentle hand on their shoulder, pushing them down. “We’re on the Enterprise - again. D this time.”

“Oh,” Tobie said, frowning.

“Yeah, didn’t you notice the uniforms?” Bethany asked.

“I was a little busy working on not dying,” Tobie replied snarkily, and then softened as Bethany winced again and gently added, “So what year is it?”

“2364, Picard’s the Captain,” Bethany shrugged. “He seemed alright. Not really sure why the Captain is always going on about him though.”

Tobie nodded, frowning. “So does this mean we have to travel through time again?”

“Yes?” Bethany said, “And I think it’ll have to be by transporter, unless we find some kind of spacial anomaly, but the likelihood of finding one that’s perfectly aligned with when and where we want to go is almost impossible.”

Tobie winced back. “Look, you know I trust you completely and utterly. But I did just have essentially a stake through my side, so you can understand if I don’t want to transport at the moment.”

Bethany nodded. “I understand. It’s totally reasonable. Besides, Dr Crusher said she wanted to keep you for observation overnight because of blood loss, and as far as I can tell it’s Alpha shift, which must be something between 0630 and 1300 hours.”

Tobie smiled, for the first time since Bethany had entered the med bay. “You’re forgetting that at this point they only have three shifts.”

“Right…” Bethany said, mentally hitting herself. “So that puts it at... What, between 0700 and 1600?”

“Computer, what time is it?” Tobie asked, looking at their friend in bemusement. Bethany literally facepalmed this time.

“The time is 1400 hours,” the disembodied voice said. Bethany groaned.

“Okay, I may or may not be able to get the transporter modified in that time, but Picard’s given us five days before he takes us back to Federation Space.”

“Five days?” Tobie said, groggily. Their eyes were starting to close more.

“We’ll be out of here before then, I promise,” Bethany said. “Now, you’re going to sleep. Losing all that blood couldn’t have been good for you.”

“But it’s only 1400 hours.”

“Doesn’t matter. You sleep, I’ll amuse myself until they’re done their briefing.”

Tobie roused themself slightly at that. “Briefing?”

“All the senior officers I’ve seen have strategically made excuses to do something for the next half hour or so, I’d wager they’re in a briefing.”

“You don’t have any money to wager, you’re a human,” Tobie said, making Bethany roll her eyes, before they shut theirs.

“Night.”

Bethany slid off of Tobie’s bed and moved to an adjacent bed, pulling out the padd from one of her belt loops. If she was going to be equally as stuck in here as she had been in the NX-01’s brig, she was at least going to try to catch up on some of her readings.

* * *

Bethany had spent the last hour alternating between staring at her friend whom she’d almost killed and looking at the information she could find about the NX-01 and what had been happening that might have caused her to almost kill her best friend.

Running the numbers the eighth time hadn't changed the fact that she'd had everything correct. Unless there had been some unknown issue from the Klingons that both she and Commander Tucker had missed, which seemed unlikely.

Or maybe she was looking at things the wrong way around? What if it was something on the end of the Tesla that was the issue? That would explain why they still ended up on a galaxy class Starfleet ship, in the 24th century, in Transporter Room One. Or something about the anomaly they're in right now?

There just wasn't enough information.

And she'd just almost killed her friend.

_If I ever thought that engineering was the easy way out to avoid being responsible for people’s lives,_ Bethany thought, _I don't anymore._

The doors of the med bay opened, and in walked in three women, Dr Crusher, Tasha Yar, (Lieutenant maybe?) and another woman who Bethany had met before - in her time.

Deanna Troi and her husband William Riker had attended the official commissioning of the USS Tesla, as the last Galaxy Class ship, as a favour to Captain Sito (theoretically). Plus, Bethany had worked on a ship with Reginald Barclay, a man with an unhealthy (Bethany thought) obsession with his counsellor. For the five months that the ship was in service, Bethany had heard almost nightly about what Reg’s counsellor thought about whatever he was talking about. And she liked Reg, she really did. He was an excellent engineer, he had some social anxiety but she'd tried not to judge. He just… Obsessed over his counsellor some times. So when Counsellor Troi had shown up, she'd introduced herself, and they'd chatted for a few minutes.

_Fuck. Didn't Picard know the first rule is you limit the number of people exposed to time travelers?_ Apparently not.

“How're they doing?” Dr Crusher asked, walking over to look at some of the various medical things surrounding Tobie. Troi came by the end of the bed Bethany was sat on while Tasha stayed by the door. “How long have they been asleep?”

“Practically an hour?” Bethany responded, tucking her padd away and watching her friend, “They managed to stay awake for five minutes after you left, but they were falling asleep and I didn't want to keep them awake.”

Dr Crusher hummed, and Bethany shrugged uncomfortably, trying not to make eye contact with Troi.

“You're feeling guilty,” Deanna said, and Bethany silently cursed. Of course! Troi was an empath, since she was only half Betazoid.

What do I do now?

“And worried?”

Bethany snorted. There! An escape route!

“I'm always worried. S’what happens when -” When what? What could she say that wouldn't make Starfleet sound completely insane for keeping her? “That's what happens.”

Troi frowned, but at least Tasha, who was doing a terrible job pretending not to be listening at the door laughed a bit.

As soon as Bethany got back, she was taking those two months vacation time she'd been saving and she was going as far away from anything time travel related as she could find.

Starfleet was insane for keeping her.

“Do you want to talk? I'm Deanna Troi, the counsellor aboard.”

What was Picard playing at? Sending his security officer, but also his counsellor? Did she have a choice?

Bethany decided to risk it, making eye contact with Troi. She opened her mouth, and then closed it and shook her head. “I can't risk contaminating the timeline too much, I can wait until I get back to my time.”

“Captain Picard tells me this is your second jump to get to your own time.” It was a briefing!

Bethany nodded cautiously, before Tobie made a rustling noise, drawing her attention.

Sliding off the bed, to stand next to Dr Crusher, she watched Tobie’s eyes open blearily.

“I'm just taking your blood cell count readings,” Dr Crusher said, fiddling with a hypo spray type thing. “Your friend was just telling us that you made another time jump before this.”

“We were on the NX-01,” Tobie said, watching Dr Crusher’s every move with softened eyes, before turning to Bethany. “Your guilt is covering the entire ship.”

Bethany nearly had a conniption. “What happened to not polluting the timeline?” she snapped, making Tobie look at her and then look back at Dr Crusher.

“She snaps like that a lot when she's stressed and can't figure out an engineering problem,” they said conspiratorially.

“I can still hear you,” Bethany said, staring at her friend from the side of the bed.

“You should go with Troi, they're not gonna let you play with the transporter until tomorrow,” Tobie said.

“It's not playing!” Bethany said as Tasha said “How do you know that?”

Tobie looked at Tasha as if it was the first time they were seeing her, propping themselves up.

Deanna looked at Tasha and then Tobie. “You’re reading their minds,” she said neutrally. “It’s not socially acceptable to do that to non-telepathic species.”

Tobie collapsed back down looking exhausted again.

“I'm not trying to,” they whined, eyes blinking slowly again, “m’just…”

Tobie paused, their eyes closing. Everyone waited.

After ten seconds passed, Bethany spoke up again. “You're just…?”

Tobie’s eyes opened and they looked confused for a second before realizing. “What? M’just tired.”

“My patient needs rest,” Dr Crusher said, ushering Bethany away from the bed, “And a blood transfusion.” Bethany considered arguing, but decided it didn't matter in the end.

“Why don't you come with me?” Deanna said, putting a hand on Bethany’s shoulder, steering her out of the room. “I can take you to the guest quarters and answer any questions there.”

* * *

Tobie woke up feeling tired. Still. Their mouth was fuzzy, as though they hadn't brushed their teeth in a week and their stomach hurt. In slow motion, they seemed to remember what had happened - Transporting away from the NX-01, appearing in Transporter room 1, the spear type thing sticking through their body. Worriedly, they sat up. They were in the Med bay, but Bethany was nowhere to be found. They swung their legs over the side of the bed. Standing up, they swayed to the side. An alarm went off, and suddenly a doctor - not Commander Leihan - appeared. This Doctor had red hair, and a kind smile.

“Hello,” she said, as Tobie looked at them. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m… Okay,” Tobie said quietly, looking at this doctor. “I don't know you?”

The Doctor led them back to the bed they’d tried to leave, waving a tri-corder over them. “Not to worry, some memory loss is to be expected. I’m Doctor Crusher. You’re aboard the Enterprise - NCC 1701 D, that is. Your blood count looks better. You may still be a little weak for the next couple days, but that should dissipate.”

Tobie took a second to take in that information - They were still stuck back in time, although in their own century at least. Another Enterprise, it seemed. Temporal Investigations were going to be so annoying to deal with when they got back to their own time.

“Where’s Bethany?” They asked, their voice croaking.

“She’s been allotted guest quarters for the night,” the doctor said, smiling. “It’s 0100 hours right now.”

Their legs were tired, so they sat back down on the bed. “I don’t… Remember?”

Doctor Crusher put a hand on their shoulder. “She was by earlier in the day, you had a couple conversations, but you’ve mostly been sleeping. I had to give you a blood transfer after the surgery. You let your shields down and read everyone’s mind here.”

Tobie frowned in embarrassment, they hadn’t done that since they were a child. “I apologize if-”

Dr Crusher shook her head. “Not to worry. It’s what happens with a med bay full of races.”

“I guess I-” They stifled a yawn behind a hand, a human habit they had picked up.

“It is completely normal for you to still be tired,” Dr Crusher said. “You won’t be able to do anything until tomorrow morning, so why don’t you go back to sleep.”

Despite feeling as though that had been the only thing they had been doing, their eyes started to shut without their permission. “Thank you, Dr Crusher.”

* * *

The next morning, Bethany made her way to sick bay before breakfast. When she walked in (without a security escort this morning, thank goodness), Tobie was sitting up on the bed.

“Good morning!” Bethany said surprised. They looked significantly less pale than they had last night, and seemed to be more awake.

“Good morning, Bethany,” Tobie said smiling as Nurse Ogawa checked something using a cuff around Tobie’s arm.

“You look much better,” Bethany said, coming next to their friend. “How are you feeling?”

“If anyone asks me that one more time I’m going to scream,” they replied. “I’m fine.”

“You did just have a spear through you less than twenty-six hours ago,” Bethany said, wincing at the thought, then added teasingly. “I think it would be expected to be asked that a couple hundred more times before you got tired of it.”

Tobie rolled their eyes at her. “When can you get the transporter set by?”

Bethany looked at them. “As you so kindly told us last night, I'm only being allowed near the transporter today, so I have no idea.”

“Do you know when I’ll be able to get out of here?”

Nurse Ogawa turned towards Tobie and Bethany. “Dr Crusher will want to go over the readings before she lets you out,” she said.

“What about breakfast? Can we at least have breakfast together?” Bethany asked looking at her pleadingly.

The nurse frowned and then smiled, nodding. “I would recommend some toast to start out, uh…”

“Call me Tobie,” they said.

“Of course,” Nurse Ogawa said, walking over to the replicator.

“How much do they know?” Tobie asked, turning to their friend.

“A lot,” Bethany said raising an eyebrow at the Betazoid. “You were super in love with Dr Crusher and kept telling everyone more than you normally would have.”

Toast appeared at the side table by Nurse Ogawa, who then moved back into an office space within Med bay after they both thanked her.

“What?” Tobie asked, making Bethany smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bethany shrugged, taking a bite of toast. “Can’t you remember?”

“No, Dr Crusher told me early this morning that we were aboard the NCC 1701-D, but how did we get here?”

“As far as I can tell, it wasn’t anything to do with the transporters aboard Enterprise -I mean - NX-01. The numbers don’t check out, so either something has gone wrong on the Tesla and it’s affecting our ability to get back there, or something about the spacial anomaly the Enterprise is currently going through has something to do with it. I was running the numbers last night when I uh… Fell asleep.”

Tobie laughed at that. “It’s been an interesting time, hasn’t it?”

Bethany nodded. “Wish you had been there to explain what was going on to PIcard though.”

“Hm?” Tobie said around a mouthful of toast.

“Let’s just say I’m quickly learning that book reports are not the best way to get to know an officer,” Bethany said, making Tobie laugh.

“First Archer, now Picard? Is there going to be any Captain who doesn’t disappoint you?”

“Archer threatened to throw me out an airlock, I think I deserve some pity about that!” Bethany said finishing a piece of toast and starting a second. “Anyway, as far as I know, I’m going to be working with the chief engineer today.”

“Oh, what year is is?” Tobie asked, putting down their only half eaten piece of toast.

“2364.”

“Yikes, How many of your previous commanding officers are aboard Enterprise right now?” Tobie asked, internally counting their own.

“I don’t know,” Bethany paused, “Should I know that? Reg Barkley was aboard at some point, and so was Professor O’Brien, but I’m not sure if they were at this time.” Bethany shrugged.

“How many people know we’re aboard?” Tobie asked, pushing away their plate.

“Just the senior staff, I think,” Bethany said, looking at her friend in concern. “Plus the nurse and the transporter people. Aren’t you going to eat the rest of it?”

Tobie shook her head. “No, I’m not feeling hungry.”

The medbay doors opened again as a man in a yellow uniform with a visor walked in. “Hi, I’m Lieutenant Geordi Laforge, Chief Engineer. I’m here to escort Commander Corwin to the transporter room.”

Bethany slid off the bed. “Pleasure to meet you Lieutenant Laforge. Tobie, try not to go insane.”

Bethany went over and shook hands with the other engineer while Tobie fixed her with a stare.

“I promise I’ll get it right this time,” Bethany said as she left the room.

“I’m told you’re the chief engineer aboard your ship?” Geordi said as they started walking in the hallway.

“Yes, I have been for… Two years now, I think?” Bethany said, nodding. “It’s also a Galaxy class, although we’ve done a few major overhauls in the past, so I hope that I remember where everything was.”

“Really?” Geordi asked. “Any particular reason?”

Was there anything that she could share? Certainly not about the political climate they’d been in before she’d come aboard the Tesla, and both she and Tobie had been sworn to secrecy about many things...

“Or is that too dangerous,” Geordi asked, meaning that Bethany had taken too long.

“I don’t want to possibly mess with the timeline,” Bethany said, making a small apologetic smile as they passed two officers in the hall.

“Of course,” Geordi said as they descended into awkward silence.

“I’m a big fan of a couple of your papers,” Bethany said after a while. He’d definitely published a paper by this point, even though the only one she could think of at the moment was definitely published in 2367. “Your research was very interesting to me when I was in the Academy.”

“Well, I’m glad to know that more get published,” Geordi said, “I just sent my second one to get peer reviewed last week.”

Oops.

They returned to silence, just in time to round the corner to transporter room one. “One of our transporter operators was in here when you transported in the first time, and he and I are going to help you,” Geordi said as they entered the room, Bethany immediately walking over to the console.

“Of course,” Bethany said, taking off the covering, not really listening anymore.

“He should be here any minute now,” Geordi continued. “In the meantime, how are we going to do this?”

* * *

Tobie was very bored in med bay. Sure, they had their padd, but there was only so much data they’d put on there, and it all seemed terribly boring right now. Even the books they’d put on there couldn’t hold their attention.

Dr Crusher breezed through the med bay doors as Tobie looked up. “Your readings seem to be much better than expected,” she said, looking at a padd she held in her hands.

“Although, due to the chroniton radiation, I wouldn’t suggest anything more than one additional temporal transport,” she said, looking up to meet Tobie’s eyes. They were a beautiful blue, and Tovie felt themself caught off guard.

“I wasn’t planning on doing too many more,” Tobie said out of reflex.

Dr Crusher smiled. “If something happens, you’re not to travel for at least five days. Doctor’s Orders.”

Tobie nodded feverently. “Of course.”

“Then you’re free to go. I can walk you to the guest quarters where your friend is staying.”

“I’d like that.”

* * *

Bethany and Geordi were in the middle of addressing one of the transporter modules when the doors opened. Bethany was laying on her back, staring at the underside of the main console while Geordi was standing in the middle of the transport platform, looking at one of the panels. Bethany vaguely looked towards who was there before turning back to her work.

“Hey Professor O’Brien,” she said, disconnecting another power coupling.

Both men paused, looking at each other in confusion for a second. Bethany stopped, realizing her mistake.

“I- I mean, Chief O’Brien,” she said quickly, trying to cover her mistake, looking at them and then O’Brien’s rank which she couldn’t understand. Panicked, she looked back up at the console. “Oh look, a subroutine processor.”

Geordi and Miles both looked at each other again. Miles shrugged, making Geordi shrug back. Time travel is weird, they both seemed to decide.

“We’re just modifying the coordinate tracker to take in a fourth coordinate - time in this case. After that we have to finish the power upgrades to the beam,” Geordi said, opting not to speak out loud about what had just happened.

“What can I do for you sir?” O’Brien asked, just as steadfastly not looking at Bethany as Bethany was not looking at him.

“Come help me with the power upgrades.”

* * *

Bethany returned back to her guest quarters exhausted, dirty, and on edge. Geordi had refused to share data about the current spacial anomaly they were going through, so Bethany just had to trust him that he would make the proper modifications. Which Bethany wasn’t very good at. She barely knew him, she knew quite a few of his accomplishments, but that didn’t mean much when both her life and Tobie’s were on the line.

Plus she had called Professor O’Brien professor!

She could not wait until she got into the sonic shower and was able to get all the sweat and dust and grit off of her.

Tobie was lying in the second bed that seemed to have appeared in the quarters, padd thrown to one side. They seemed to be asleep again, so Bethany tried to be quiet as she made her way towards the sonic shower. Either Tobie had just been lying there, or they were barely sleeping but Tobie immediately sat up as she walked across the room.

“Ew,” they said first, which Bethany had to agree with.

“My uniform needs to be seriously cleaned,” Bethany said, nodding in understanding.

“How’d it go?”

“Apart from a couple of calculations that Geordi refuses to let me see, we should be good to go by tomorrow. What about you?”

“I’ve had a couple house calls,” Tobie said, smiling wryly. “But other than that, mostly I’ve been bored. Why won’t they let you see?”

“It’s to do with modifications due to the spacial anomaly. I tried to tell them that I probably already knew about it and would be able to do it quicker, but they didn’t let me,” Bethany said, taking off her outer jacket, and setting it on a chair.

“Well, Dr Crusher told me today that due to chroniton radiation we were not to do any more than one jump, without having five days rest,” Tobie said, as Bethany began taking off her division shirt.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Bethany said. “I’m going to take a sonic shower. Do you need anything before I go bask in the gloriousness of being clean?”

“Oh, Picard invited us to dinner with the senior staff tonight, 2000 hours,” Tobie added.

“It’s already 1930!” Bethany exclaimed.

“And we’re not to wear our normal uniforms, Troi helped me pick out a couple from the replicator’s index.”

“Are you serious? I don’t want to wear replicated clothes, they never last long and they feel awful,” Bethany said walking into the bathroom.

“It’s just for tonight,” Tobie said, “I’ll leave them just outside the door.”

“Okay,” came muffled through the door as Bethany turned on the sonic shower.

* * *

“How are you so calm?” Bethany whispered to Tobie as they walked towards one of the turbolifts to take them to a conference room.

“I’ve been laying in sick bay for the last day and a half, I am ready to do anything so long as it gets me out of the two rooms I’ve been in,” Tobie replied, before suddenly ducking into an alcove, pulling Bethany behind them.

“What the hell!” Bethany said, before being shushed by Tobie.

_That’s my first commanding officer and,_ they thought at Bethany, peeking their head out, and then pulled it back, _and Lt Dowe, if I’m not mistaken._

_Lt Dowe? I knew she’d been with the fleet for a while, but seriously? This is thirty years away. Thirty two? Why hasn’t she gotten a promotion?_ Bethany thought back.

_She looks like she’s an ensign right now,_ Tobie replied as a door opened and the two who had been in the corridor walked into another doorway,

“That was overly dramatic,” Bethany said as they continued walking towards the turbolift.

Tobie rolled their eyes. “I’ve apparently blabbled just about everything to the senior officers. No reason to spread that to additional crewmembers,” they said as the two entered the turbolift.

“Oh, speaking of, I saw Professor O’Brien today. He was helping us work - apparently he was one of the two people we transported in on,” Bethany said, shrugging as the turbolift moved upward to deck B.

“How does that work?” Tobie asked, “Like, him meeting you ahead of time?”

Bethany shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess we’ll leave it to temporal investigations.”

Tobie nodded.

* * *

The senior staff (plus O’Brien) were milling about by the viewscreen at the front of the room. Bethany looked at Tobie, who looked back and then they both shrugged, and moved towards the group. As Picard saw them, he exited whatever was on the screen quickly, and then turned to them smiling.

“Excellent, you're here,” he said, “we were just about to sit down.”

Bethany snuck a glance at Tobie, who looked as suspicious as Bethany felt.

“I thought it might be nice to pair you by division,” Picard continued.

_Divide and conquer?_ Bethany thought to Tobie, who made an infinitesimal nod Bethany barely caught.

“Of course sir,” Bethany said out loud, moving away from Tobie slightly. This dinner seemed to be politicking at its highest, which confused Bethany slightly, since Admiral Picard was known to hate the office politics Starfleet headquarters housed.  
  
_Did you tell them what I do?_ Tobie asked her, putting on their most genuine fake smile, as Tasha came up to them, and began leading them to a seat on the far side of the table.

_No, but maybe you did?_ Bethany responded, letting Riker pull out a chair for her between O’Brien and Geordi. This was going to be sufficiently awkward for the duration of dinner.

Bethany noticed that Riker and Troi didn’t sit next to each other - maybe they're not a couple yet? No, Troi had said they'd dated just after the academy when Bethany had met her before. Odd.

Just as the captain was about to sit down at the head of the table, suddenly, someone was sitting there. They had on a captain's uniform, and Bethany was sure she'd seen him before in a briefing.

“Q!” Picard shouted, making Bethany face across the table at Tobie and raise her eyebrows.

“Interesting,” she muttered under her breath, as Tasha drew her phaser, making Tobie put a hand on top.

“That won't stop him,” Tobie said to Tasha, who just looked angry.

“Well, well, well. If it isn't a bunch of lost boys, and a couple of new recruits,” Q said, looking between Bethany, Tobie, and the rest of the crew. Bethany tried to stand up, but found herself seemingly glued to her seat.

“Your earth literature metaphors are moderately accurate,” Tobie said, making everyone look at them.

“Q, what are you doing here?” Picard said angrily.

“I just came to enjoy the show,” Q replied, stretching out across the chair. Tobie had taken their hand off of Tasha’s weapon, but they still seemed on edge.

“What show?” Riker spoke up, making Bethany roll her eyes.

“The one where you guys try and deal with some time travel friends,” Q responded, waving his hands around.

“Friends?” Bethany and O’Brien said at the same time.

“Do you know these people, Q?” Picard demanded, he also hadn’t moved from his spot, so Bethany thought Q had probably frozen him in place as well.

“No,” Bethany said forcefully, before looking at Tobie who was avoiding her eye contact.

“Seriously?” Bethany asked metaphorically to Tobie. “They’ve been known to mess with ships!”

Tobie frowned. “I’m not allowed to talk about it,” they said. “You only show up to Captain - To the captain.”

Q laughed, making everyone glare at him. “It’s not the only thing I do. You’re here, aren’t you?”

“You messed with the coordinates, so we ended up here?” Tobie exclaimed, while Bethany stared at them.

“You almost killed Tobie,” Bethany said quietly.

“You would have been fine,” Q said, making Bethany ball up her fists.

Tobie looked at Bethany, and then looked at O’Brien beside her, and then the other Enterprise crew. Seeing Tobie look around, Bethany looked too, seeing that the entire crew was completely frozen.

“What are you doing?” Tobie asked.

“Keeping you two out of trouble,” Q replied, still lounging on the chair.

“Why?” Bethany asked, narrowing her eyes.

“No reason,” Q said flippantly, looking at his fingers. Bethany noticed suddenly that he’d changed his uniform to their uniforms, as opposed to the ones the Enterprise crew was wearing.

“That’s not a good answer,” Tobie said, and Bethany nodded.

“You don’t want to be here?” Q asked, turning towards the two of them, eyes suddenly glinting with malice.

Bethany just had time to look panicked at Tobie before the room around them swam and…

They were alone in a hallway. The architecture seemed to be Cardassian, although the panels on the wall said “Deep Space 9”. The stardate it gave put them only a few years after they had been on the Enterprise.

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m going to punch him.”  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note to self - don't upload on your iPad. It's a pain. Language is quite a bit stronger this chapter. But at least, it's only sixteen days after the first, so... Nine days later than I meant it to be up (but I did work 44 hours last week, so I think I can be forgiven) I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, but I'm hoping to keep it in the same time frame as I did this time. Just like our real friendship, it's gonna take time, :P


End file.
